No amnesty for black money stashed abroad from FY24

The unquestioned amnesty to bring back money stashed abroad is not going to continue in 2023-24 fiscal year, which begins in July.

The move comes as no taxpayer has declared in their tax returns to have brought back their untaxed income by using the opportunity to legalise the wealth by paying only 7 per cent tax, which is less than a third of the highest tax rate of 25 per cent applied to personal income in Bangladesh.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) offered the tax privilege with the hope that people who have their money in foreign lands will bring it back, in a bid to augment direct tax collection.

Under the rule, a taxpayer can show their cash, bank deposits, bank notes, convertible securities and financial instruments in their returns by paying only a 7 per cent tax on the amount.

The money will have to be transferred through the banking channel and banks will deduct the tax from the money to deposit it to the state coffer through automated challan.

The scope, which drew a lot of criticism from various quarters since such amnesty discourages honest taxpayers and provides incentives for non-compliance, will end on June 30 this year.